Why Effective Job Descriptions are Vital to Any Recruitment Process

While effective job descriptions are essential to the recruitment process, they are often put off until the last minute. A recent survey found that one-third of new hires left their jobs after only six months, which is simply too high, and an effective job description could have alleviated this issue.

How Effective Job Descriptions Can Help Your Recruitment Process

Having effective job descriptions is crucial in the recruitment process. Without detailed, accountable descriptions of the role, you could cause confusion, scaring applicants away.

What is a Job Description?

Job descriptions outline the essential requirements, duties, responsibilities, and skills needed to perform a specific role.

Without a detailed job description, you could attract underqualified or overqualified candidates. This causes you to waste time and resources because you weren’t clear when starting the recruiting process. Taking the time to hire and train someone for a role that does not meet the job requirements leads to poor retention, starting the recruitment cycle all over again. One of the main benefits of a professional and detailed job description is the value it offers while making your company look credible and establishing trust.

What Goes into a Quality Job Description?

When considering how to write a job description, there are a few major points that cannot be ignored:

1. Development

You won’t know how to write a job description if you don’t know what the job entails. Conducting a job analysis will give you all the data you need to determine how to perform the role effectively and efficiently. This means interviewing employees working in the role, observing how tasks are performed, getting questionnaires completed, collecting salary data, and speaking with a supervisor.

2. Determining Essential Functions

The essential functions will help in creating job titles that directly reflect the role. Job titles should be clear and succinct, avoiding internal lingo. Targeted job titles have been found to be more effective than generic ones, and key phrases help pinpoint applicants with experience in those roles.

3. Creating a Job Summary

The job summary provides a short overview of your company and the expectations of the role. This is an opportunity to highlight all the things about the company that will encourage applicants to take the next step. You should briefly discuss the culture and why they would want to become a part of the team. Make sure to include the location or if it is a remote position.

4. Outlining Responsibilities

The core responsibilities of the position should be listed in detail, especially the ones that are specific to your organization. Make sure they are clear, along with keywords that may be part of the requirements. The day-to-day duties of the position should be highlighted, giving the applicant a good idea of how the role will work on a recurring basis. Finally, you want to discuss how the role fits into your company and who the role will report to.

5. Listing Qualifications and Skills

Hard and soft skills should be listed, along with education, experience, any certifications or technical skills needed, and how strong their communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills must be. Be very detailed in what your organization wants and needs from this role.

6. Outlining Salary

In today’s market, a salary range for the role should be considered in order to attract high-quality candidates that fall within the salary expectations. This could help down on confusion and alleviate the question if interviewed.

Without a proper job description when recruiting, you could end up wasting the time and resources of the company and the applicant. But through effective and detailed job descriptions, you’ll help position both the company and applicants for long-term success.

Published 3/29/23 - Updated 10/5/23